This invention discloses a Ground-Effect Ship having two modes of travel: first, with a plurality of pontoon floatation members in contact with the water; and secondly, a sailing-flight mode of travel wherein the apparatus lifts at least one pontoon member free of the water's surface and travels `skipping` at least one other pontoon member over the water's surface.
The fundamental principle of operation is that, as water is approximately eight hundred times more dense than air, the water itself should be used as an energy sink; that is, to absorb the wind energy impacts against the apparatus. The apparatus, in sailing-flight, rotates about a center of gravity so as to `shunt` wind energy over onto the on-water pontoon member and to, therefore, displace the on-water pontoon member deeper into the water. Mechanically, the forward motion of the apparatus `bounces` the pontoon member back to a dynamic waterline. The wind energy, therefore, has then been dissipated into the water itself and the apparatus continues on it's way.